Chamber and committees

We are approaching the end of the first year of implementing the National Carers Strategy (published in December 2022). The implementation of the strategy is monitored by the Carers Rights and Support Steering Group (CRSSG), made up of representatives from national and local carer organisations, statutory sector representatives and unpaid carers - so that carers are directly involved in measuring and monitoring the impact of the strategy during its lifespan.

The CRSSG agreed 43 actions to be prioritised for Year 1. The actions cover a broad range of topics including COVID-19 and cost of living as well as outlining employment, financial and mental health support. Examples of actions that have been progressed this year include:

• We distributed £560,000 to carer centres in 2022-2023 to improve local capacity for carer support.
• We funded the Carers Parliament and the Young Carers Festival in 2023, with record numbers attending the Young Carers Festival this year. We will continue to fund events which enable carers to engage directly with decisionmakers.
• We have engaged with carers in 2023 to produce the National Dementia Strategy, the Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Action Plan, the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and we have involved carers in the review of the National Outcomes and the National Care Service co-design. We will continue to engage with carers to ensure their voices are heard and reflected in policy across the Scottish Government.
• We are continuing to fund and promote increased uptake of the Carer Positive employer accreditation scheme, with 264 employers now signed up who are responsible for 493,000 employees (as of November 2023).
• Social Security Scotland successfully launched the initial pilot for Carer Support Payment in November 2023, with the benefit to be available nationally by autumn 2024. The benefit is a key milestone in improving support for unpaid carers and will be available to many carers in full-time education who cannot currently get Carer’s Allowance.
• Through the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund, we invested £15 million in 2022-23 in community-based initiatives to promote good health and wellbeing and tackle the mental health issues for people, including unpaid carers.

The Strategy is kept under review so that we are able to respond to changing circumstances and ensure progress towards meeting the actions contained within it.

As part of the process to develop the Scottish Government/COSLA Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, we undertook a literature review and engaged with stakeholders, people with lived experiences and the Equality and Human Rights Forum to gather evidence and better understand marginalised groups’ experiences of mental health. This included unpaid carers, and professional bodies, third sector and equalities organisations representing their interests.

This evidence has been published in the Scottish Government Mental Health Equality Evidence Report accompanying the Delivery Plan, with a specific section on carers at chapter 12. This evidence was invaluable in undertaking a robust Equality Impact Assessment and shaping the Strategy and subsequent Delivery and Workforce Action Plans.

Statistics published on 5 September 2023 covering quarter ending June 2023 show that NHS Forth Valley, NHS Highland, NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Orkney did not effectively eliminate their long waits (where 4% or fewer of all waits are over one year).

However, statistics published on 5 December 2023 covering quarter ending September 2023 show that NHS Forth Valley, NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Orkney have now effectively eliminated their long waits (where 4% or fewer of all waits are over one year).

We continually monitor CAMHS waiting times performance and backlogs and are directing tailored support to those Boards with the longest waits, including NHS Highland, providing access to professional advice, ensuring they have robust improvement plans in place and monitoring their implementation.

We have commissioned all Boards to submit performance trajectories up to March 2024, including a timeline for clearing long waits. These will be updated annually and used to inform further targeted improvement work to ensure all Boards consistently meet the CAMHS waiting times standard.

It is not possible to report accurately on the number of additional CAMHS cases taken on since 2021 as the current aggregate data set does not allow identification of separate individuals, it only gives a snapshot of the total number of open cases at any one time.

In the NHS Recovery Plan, published in 2021, we committed to provide sufficient funding for around 320 additional staff in CAMHS over the next 5 years, with the potential to increase capacity for CAMHS cases by over 10,000. This estimate was based on the Choice and Partnership Approach (CAPA) capacity model, where each full time clinician can hold around 40 open cases at any one time, and manage around 40 new cases per year.

From March 2021 to September 2023, 295 WTE CAMHS staff have been added to the workforce, significantly increasing capacity to manage CAMHS cases. We see this reflected in numbers waiting - the total number of children and young people waiting for treatment has fallen from 10,499 in December 2021 to 5,344 in September 2023.

Our National Discharge Without Delay Steering Group has representatives from every NHS Board and Health and Social Care Partnership in Scotland. The group leads on improvement and sharing best practice across Scotland on areas related to good hospital to community transfer or discharge planning. The group meets monthly and there is a standing agenda item on support for unpaid carers which has highlighted examples of good practice.

We have funded NHS Education for Scotland to develop three training modules for the health and social care workforce, to help them to identify, include and support unpaid carers which we expect to be launched in January 2024. This will include highlighting carers’ right to involvement in hospital discharge decisions.

We have also funded Healthcare Improvement Scotland to work to improve practice on carer involvement across health, with a focus on carer involvement in hospital discharge.

As part of this, in September 2023, we brought together Health and Social Care Partnership carer lead officers and Carer Centre Managers to focus on this issue and share good practice.

Our refreshed Diabetes Improvement Plan outlines our commitment to further increase access to diabetes technologies to all who would benefit.

We would expect the prescribing clinician to discuss the most appropriate device for the individual and their circumstances. Where a mobile phone is not available, manufacturers provide receivers which are compatible with the devices.

Between 2016 and 2022, the Scottish Government invested £29.6 million of additional funding to support the increased provision of diabetes technologies, and we continue to work with stakeholders to ensure this is equitable across Scotland.

Responsibility for the recruitment of CAMHS staff lies with NHS Boards. In the NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026 , the Scottish Government committed to provide sufficient funding for around 320 additional staff in CAMHS by 2026, with the potential to increase capacity for CAMHS cases by over 10,000. This commitment refers to Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) staff.

The Scottish Government continues to consider all avenues for securing a sustainable future for Ferguson Marine, including learning from relevant international examples.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone in Scotland whose first language is not English can contribute to Scotland’s future and the society they live in. Having support to learn English is key for many refugees and people seeking asylum, enabling them to participate in learning in schools, colleges and universities; engage within communities; and pursue their employment goals.

Through consultation on the future of adult learning between September 2019 and February 2020, the Scottish Government engaged with over 700 ESOL learners and committed to undertake a review of the impact of ‘Welcoming Our Learners: Scotland’s ESOL Strategy 2015-2020’ to produce recommendations on next steps for these specialisms within the context of the adult learning strategy.

On 5 December 2023, I announced an independent review of Community Learning and Development (CLD) which includes ESOL learning. The Independent Review of CLD offers a timely opportunity to better understand how we can ensure that proposed changes to the education and skills system has a focus on the most marginalised learners. Given the ongoing work to reform the education sector, and the intention of the review to provide recommendations on how CLD can best fit within it, it makes sense to pause implementation of the strategies until such time as the future shape and strategic orientation of CLD is considered.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone in Scotland whose first language is not English can contribute to Scotland’s future and the society they live in. Having support to learn English is key for many refugees and people seeking asylum, enabling them to participate in learning in schools, colleges and universities; engage within communities; and pursue their employment goals.

Through consultation on the future of adult learning between September 2019 and February 2020, the Scottish Government engaged with over 700 ESOL learners and committed to undertake a review of the impact of ‘Welcoming Our Learners: Scotland’s ESOL Strategy 2015-2020’ to produce recommendations on next steps for these specialisms within the context of the adult learning strategy.

On 5 December 2023, I announced an independent review of Community Learning and Development (CLD) which includes ESOL learning. The Independent Review of CLD offers a timely opportunity to better understand how we can ensure that proposed changes to the education and skills system has a focus on the most marginalised learners. Given the ongoing work to reform the education sector, and the intention of the review to provide recommendations on how CLD can best fit within it, it makes sense to pause implementation of the strategies until such time as the future shape and strategic orientation of CLD is considered.